sea-kissed 🌊 || j.jk+k.th

{5} hallucination 🌊

Once he was satisfied by the amount of food he had consumed, Jungkook decided to leave the hotel a little bit. He had spent the day sleeping, and the prospect of having to go through Namjoon's lifeguarding manual before tomorrow morning was already boring him to death.

He grabbed the coat he had left in the hotel room, well, his room now, and made his way out of the building.

The sun was long gone, and the way back to Gimyong and its tiny streets was dark and silent. Jungkook walked for 15 minutes, following the only road along the coast, until he saw the figures of houses begin to materialize. The town was exactly as he had pictured it at this hour : quiet, and calm.

Most of the lights were still on, families were probably either finishing dinner or watching TV. He couldn't catch sight of any of the city's residents, and yet countless details -a magazine left out on the porch, a tower of seashells by the front door, an open window and the smell of incense- proved that it was indeed inhabited. The town felt both empty and alive. Distant but comforting.

He strolled around the streets for around an hour, trying to imprint them in his memory. Starting today, he had decided to live in Gimyong ; the earlier he became familiar with the town, the better.

He spotted a few strategic places ; a computer shop, a café, a clothing store, a pizza place... Gimyong may not have had much, but it had enough for Jungkook at least.

Once he felt comfortable navigating the narrow streets, he decided to end his tour by a quick stop at the beach. It was one thing to see the beach by his room's window, and it was another to feel his shoes sink in the sand and the salty air fill his lungs.

But once he got there, he instantly forgot anything about a "quick" stop. He had spent the last hour either trying to find his way around or not to trip on something on the ground in the dark ; since he had left the hotel this evening, he hadn't looked up to the sky.

He was in awe ; it wasn't his first time in a town remote from the big cities of Korea, but never until then had he seen a sky filled with so many stars. Eyes glued on the vast ocean of lights above, he blindly made his way to a pile of rocks lapped by the waves.

He laid there, on the rocks, for a long time. And, somehow, for the first time in forever, he felt his heart swell up with joy. Right in this moment, it felt like there was nobody else in the world. Nothing to worry about. Nothing to think back to. Just him, the rocks, the stars and the sea, and the wind playing with his hair.

The feeling quickly vanished when he heard a sound, no, a voice coming from the other side of the rocks.

Or was it a voice ?

It was faint, but melodious. Airy, yet as deep as the sea before him. Light, but made his chest heavy and full to the brim with emotions he didn't understand, as if they weren't his own.

Yes, it was a voice, but it was almost music.

Whose voice was it ?

Jungkook looked back up to the sky, and listened.

He couldn't tell the words of the song. In fact, even though he heard it perfectly, he couldn't put his finger on the melody either. But it seemed like it was echoing throughout his body ; making his head spin, his heart clutch, his bones ache.

What was happening to him ?

His vision started to get blurry. The stars above him began to dance. With every new note, a constellation came to life and joined the rest.

Then, they started gliding on the melody, slowly, one way, and then the other. Carefully, thoughtfully, they joined the eternal dance of the waves. And then, suddenly, Jungkook wasn't looking at the sky anymore. He was looking at the sea.

Another sea, above him, was stretching across the entirety of the sky, drowning the stars. The ground, under him, dissolved ; the rocks vanished into thin air, and soon he found himself floating away, somewhere between two oceans.

He couldn't tell up from down anymore, all his thoughts had been washed away by the salt and the soft touch of the water. Was he dreaming ?

Probably.

It was a beautiful dream.

Above him, a ray of light broke through the water, and with it, hundreds of jellyfish surfaced. They were small, incredibly so, and emitted a weak but reassuring light. Scattered in the sea, this infinity of floating lights began to sing, too.

And then it stopped.

The sky drained its water, the jellyfish found their way back to the constellations, the rocks arose once more, as if they had never left Jungkook's back.

The voice, too, was gone. All that could be heard was the usual song of the waves.

It was only when his own lungs started to ache that Jungkook realized he had stopped breathing. Out of breath, as if he had just swam in the strongest currents, he took in the cold air of the night.

When he felt in control of his body again, he got up on his feet and climbed up to the highest rock he could reach.

But, of course, no matter how hard he longed to know, there was no one to be found on the beach that night.